Gospel singer Rance Allen prefers recording in the studio rather than in concert, yet on Saturday at the Richmond Auditorium, the Rance Allen Group - made up of lead singer Rance and his singing-and-dancing brothers Steve and Tom - will record their performance for Tyscot Records. It will be their second live CD for the Indianapolis label in two years.

Allen says Toby Jackson, the trio's manager for more than 40 years, talked them into it.

Allen, who burst on the national scene during the 1970s with gospel songs such as "I Got to Be Myself," "Ain't No Need of Crying," "I Belong to You" and "Smile" that incorporated elements of soul music and received airplay on many R&B radio stations, says he's a perfectionist who likes to take his time in the studio.

"I love working on a song, building it like a construction worker would, brick by brick, piece by piece, and listening to it a hundred times to make sure that it goes where you want it to go," Allen, 64, says by phone from Toledo, Ohio, where he has been the pastor of New Bethel Church of God in Christ for 28 years. He also presides as the bishop of 14 other churches in Michigan and Ohio.

The singer, who remains remarkably limber in performance despite back surgery 15 years ago, says he doesn't mind recording in front of an audience, however.

"There's nothing like having people talk back to you, holler back at you, dance with you, clap hands with you, and experiencing the emotional fervor that comes from interacting with them," he says.

The Allen brothers grew up in Monroe, Mich., listening to Motown records made in nearby Detroit. "We listened to the structure of the music, more so than the words," Rance says. "We noticed that their music has a bass, a piano and not one, but three guitars all playing at the same time and doing three different things. We started to incorporate that into our style of playing, and it brought a whole new avenue of production to us."

During the early '70s, while recording for Stax Records in Memphis, the brothers revamped such R&B hits of the period as the Temptations' "Just My Imagination" and Archie Bell and the Drells' "There's Gonna Be a Showdown" by changing the lyrics to reflect their Christian beliefs. Their current Tyscot CD, "Amazing Grace," includes a version of the Impressions' 1965 hit "People Get Ready," but there was no need to alter composer Curtis Mayfield's gospel-inspired words.

The brothers once played instruments at their concerts, but they now travel with a six-piece backup band.

"It was such a relief to be able to sing and not have to worry about playing at the same time," the singing preacher says.